The Hungering Serpent
by KaiserdeDiez
Summary: Taylor Hebert wakes up in a tank in an unfamiliar building surrounded by unfamiliar people. She quickly discovers that something is very wrong. Something alien has been unleashed upon Brockton Bay. But this hidden threat is not the only thing the Bay has to worry about. These creatures are not the only ones that have come to prey upon the people.
1. Metamorphosis 1-1

The first thing that I noticed when I woke up was the blaring sirens and the shouting of people in a panic. Then second thing that I noticed was that everything was bathed in a red light. I discovered that I was floating and behind some kind of glass. I could see wires floating in the water around me and people were running from console to console. I was stuck in some kind of tank in unfamiliar surroundings with some kind of emergency going on. I couldn't breathe and I could feel panic starting to set in.

I began banging on the glass, trying to break it. That seemed to get the attention of the people in the room and they seemed to grow more panicked. As I continued my attempts to break the glass something snaked into view from behind me and struck the glass with some kind of blade, cracking it.

I flinched away from the whip-blade, surprised. I saw that the blade looked to be connected to a spinal column of all things. I followed the spinal column as it snaked around behind me and, on a hunch, tried to move it. To my surprise, it worked. I shook my head. I couldn't let the fact that I had a tail distract me. Seeing that the tail-blade could actually do something to the glass I kept using it. Idly, I noticed that one of the people in the room with me looked to be using a two-way radio.

A few more strikes and the glass broke and I was free. When the tank began to empty I realized the liquid was definitely not water. I wasn't sure what it was, but it was too far viscous to be normal water.

As I tried to leave the tank I found that the mask and the wires and tubes that both it and I were connected to impeded my movements. As I tried to remove the mask I found that a set of tubes had been put up my nose and down my throat. It took a few gross moments to remove them. The feeling of pulling plastic tubes from deep within my esophageal and nasal passages was one of the most unsettling things I'd ever experienced and I was thankful when it was over. Afterward I was able to climb out. When I touched the ground I began removing what I thought were some kind of medical sensors that had been attached to the wires I had seen in the tank with me and after that my motions seemed to be completely free.

As I gathered myself up I started checking myself over. I had noticed that things were off when I was removing the sensors, but I had no idea how much. It looked like I was wearing some kind of weird black, chitinous armor over my entire body (or at least what I could see). I also had claws instead of nails and I was even lankier than I had been.

Before I could investigate any further I was interrupted by shuffling. I looked to see what caused it and I noticed one of the people squeezing himself into the corner farthest from me while hyperventilating. He had an ID card but otherwise wore non-descript clothes. He spoke into the radio. "Security, Subject Twenty-One has broken containment."

"Understood, a security detail has been dispatched to your area," was the reply that came over the radio. The man moved the radio away from his mouth and tried to move as little as possible. Looking at the other side of the room showed that one of the corners behind me was occupied by a woman who looked to be just as terrified.

I looked back to the man. "Where am I? How did I get here?" I noticed that my voice sounded strange. It sounded almost…sibilant and soft, but in a menacing manner.

The man flinched but he still managed to answer. "I-I can't tell you that."

"Then why am I here? Where's my mom?" I began hyperventilating a bit as well I had no idea what was going on

The man raised his hands in a calming gesture. "I can tell you're worried, but if you just stay calm and wait here, then some men will be here soon and they can help you."

As I thought about that I caught the scent of something pungent, but I had no idea what it was. I had never smelled anything like it before. I looked back at the tank of liquid I had been floating in and back to the man in the corner. He flinched when I did, clearly terrified of me. "Why are you scared of me?"

"W-what? What makes you think that? I'm just concerned for your safety," he reassured me.

I looked behind me to see the woman behind me was also clearly terrified and was watching my every movement intently. I turned back to the man. "She's scared of me, too."

"No," he tried to say in a soothing manner. The fear in his voice ruined the effect. "We both just want you to stay here where it's safe. In a few minutes some people will be here to take us all to a more secure location."

None of this was adding up. The last thing I remembered was waiting for Emma and her dad to pick me up from an after school art workshop. Mom and Dad both had to work late, so they had agreed to pick me up for them. All of the other kids had gone home and I had been the last one waiting in front of the school when I felt a pain in my arm and then everything went dark. Then I woke up in a tank, changed, with no idea where I was or who was here with me and one of the only two people I had seen referred to me as a _subject_ , not by my name.

Nothing was adding up but it was clear this guy was full of malarkey and there was no way he could expect me to believe what he was saying at this point. "No they won't. I'm ten, not stupid. You've been keeping me prisoner here. That's why I was in the tank and why you called security."

The look on the man's face showed that I wasn't supposed to have picked up on that. "Why have you been keeping me here!?" The man just seemed to become more frightened. I stood up and leaned toward him. "WHY!?"

Before the man had a chance to answer I heard what sounded like metal tearing behind me, followed by a metallic thud. By the time I turned to look I also heard the woman scream bloody murder as a tail-blade that looked similar to my own had stabbed through her chest and began lifting her three feet off of the ground. I followed the spine-like structure to where it disappeared in the massive vent. In another moment I heard an unearthly screech and the woman was pulled into the vent, leaving only a trail of blood.

That was the point where the man seemed to lose his mind completely, as he hurried over to the door and swiped a key card, muttering the entire time. The door was barely open enough to let him through before he fled in terror. Not wanting to be trapped in the room with a monster in the vents I followed his lead. I also noticed that I was much, much taller, now, since I bumped my head on the top of the frame. Once I was out of the room I found myself lacking direction. I had no idea how to get out of the building.

An idea occurred to me. I didn't really like it, but I couldn't think of anything better. Besides, as I watched the man nearing a corner I realized that my window of opportunity was quickly disappearing. I didn't like the idea of following him, but if he was heading for an exit then following him was my best bet for getting out, so I did. I followed him through a twisting labyrinth of halls. I could have easily gotten lost if I tried to find my way on my own.

As my unwitting guide and I grew closer to what I assumed to be the exit, I ran across more and more people. They all seemed to take pause at seeing me and gave me the right of way without a second thought, all of them with that same look of fear on their faces. Unfortunately, that was just one more thing that I didn't have time to process at the moment.

As I rounded yet another corner I saw that the man had, in fact, been heading toward an exit. Unfortunately, it was also guarded by men carrying assault rifles. They noticed me almost immediately and raised their guns. I managed to duck back behind the corner just before they opened fire. Well, that exit was a no-go. I would have to find another way out.

I tried to back track a bit but I had no idea if I was succeeding or just going in random directions. All of the hallways looked the same. The walls even seemed to blend into each other since they were the most boring shade of egg-shell white. I could hear that at least one of the guards was following me, but they were quickly losing ground. I could feel the panic creeping back in. The only way out of this building I knew of was guarded with assault rifles and I still had no idea what, exactly, the emergency was, though I figured it had something to do with that tail that had come from the vent.

The tail-blade I had seen coming out of the vent looked eerily like my own. I couldn't help but wonder if there were more people in a situation like mine in here but, even if there were, I doubted they'd be in a helping mood. One of them had just straight-up murdered someone, which just meant someone else I'd have to watch out for in here. I was feeling more alone despite being surrounded by people.

As I tried to backtrack I became increasingly convinced that I had become lost. Eveything looked the same and I couldn't tell if I was going in circles. My movements were further restricted by what I thought to be guards looking for me. Any time I heard boots approaching I immediately ducked back around the corner and went down a different hallway

I don't know how long I wandered around but I eventually found an elevator. I honestly had no idea that there was more than one floor in this building. I hadn't even seen a set of stairs.

Without any clue about another possible way out I pried open the doors much more easily than I had expected. I quickly found the hatch to the roof of the elevator and opened that as well. Again, I was surprised at my new height, but right now I had to focus.

I climbed atop the elevator and saw that the shaft went up five stories. I decided to try and climb the cable, but I quickly found that the grease made that very difficult. I made a bit of progress only to lose almost of it when my grip inevitably slipped. After several tries I had barely gotten five feet off of the ground and I realized that I wasn't going to be making any headway any time soon. As I looked around for an alternate way up, I noticed that there were metal bars inside a small alcove that would function as a passable ladder.

I hopped off of the cable and started climbing the bars and made quick time in climbing to the top floor, though the alcove was a bit cramped for me. Just another oddity that I didn't have time to focus on.

Something else that was odd was that the door to the topmost floor was two stories above the previous door in the elevator shaft. Unfortunately I didn't have much time to dwell on this, so I pried open the door, once again with surprising ease As soon as I did, I was once again bathed in red light.

I had expected to at least see someone up here. Someone guarding the elevator door or at least someone fleeing the building or something. All I saw, though, were a pair of assault rifles lying on the ground. There was a small trail of blood as well, which led to a vent that had its grating torn off. There was also a trail of what looked like holes dissolved into the floor leading to the vent. I took a moment to look at the holes and I found that they seemed to go through several holes. I had no idea what had caused this kind of damage, but I had no intention of meeting it. The smell of blood was surprisingly strong given how little there was.

I decided to start exploring the building well away from that vent. There were large windows set into the ceiling above me, the first ones I had seen since I woke up, and I could see large pallets of boxes everywhere. I was apparently in a warehouse.

While I was exploring I found a few more trails of blood, all leading toward a nearby vent or, more often, just ended below some rafters. I sometimes found a gun near one of the trails of blood and rarely there would be another trail of holes dissolved through the floor, also leading toward a vent.

The second thing that I noticed was that this was apparently the ground floor which, meant that the entirety of the rest of the facility I had been in was underground. The warehouse was also much, much smaller than the floor I woken up on.

Soon I found a massive hole in the wall. Rubble was scattered all over the floor as though something had exploded from the other side of the wall. I had finally found my way out, so I walked out of the building and into the outside. Despite all of the dust in the air I felt a great amount of relief the moment I got a whiff of the open air. It was city air, true, but it smelled great to me.

Not long after, though, I could hear sirens approaching as well as more explosions in the distance. I could feel the relief fade away only to be replaced with anxiety. I didn't really want police or medics to find me leaving a building that had apparently been bombed, so I decided that my best option was to sneak away in the shadows. As I did I felt a brief feeling of joy, but it wasn't my own. The source had been from something else, something foreign. I looked back at the building in an attempt to find the source and I saw several large, dark figures exiting the same hole I had left just moments ago.

It was too dark and I was too far away to make out fine details, but I could tell that they were inhuman. The posture was wrong, the head was too large, and they looked to be too thin in places. They also each had a long, bladed tail like what had come out of the vent earlier and, to top off the look, they had a set of large spines on their backs. Not only that, but their posture was completely wrong. They walked with a severely hunched posture. I could also hear a light hissing, more like something I would have heard from a large snake.

None of them seemed to notice me and ran off in the opposite direction and none of them seemed to look in my direction, sticking to the shadows the entire time. After they left my field of view I realized that I had been holding my breath and had been holding completely still. I let out the breath I had been holding and began heading my own way. Before I did, though, I saw a sign in front of the building proclaiming it to be a Medhall warehouse.

I began panicking again. Why was I being held in a warehouse belonging to one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the country? And why had it been bombed? And what the _hell_ were the creatures I had seen leaving? I hadn't found anything here that could answer my questions and I didn't have time to look with the emergency responders on their way. I had to find a safe place to think. I had to go home.


	2. Metamorphosis 1-2

The first hurdle I faced in going home was figuring out where I was. Fortunately, I knew the general layout of the city pretty well for a ten-year old (actually, I probably knew the layout better than several adults). I just needed to get an idea of where I was. My search was set to the backdrop of periodic explosions.

I knew that the building I had exited was a warehouse and that almost all of the warehouses in the Bay were near the coast, which meant I was most likely near the Docks. I just needed to figure out which direction that was. Since I knew where several other major landmarks I picked a direction and began walking. I stuck to the main roads, trying to be as visible as possible. After running full-speed for a bit I decided to sit and rest as I was growing tired from my previous run. It also gave me a chance to more closely examine some of the changes I had undergone.

The first thing that became apparent was that, in addition to being surprisingly thing, my hands and arms were covered in some kind of…black exoskeleton. I decided to prod at it. As soon as my hand came into focus I realized that I had half-inch claws. A quick test on the side-walk left a gouge in the cement. Getting back on track I ran my hands along the rest of my body. I found that the exoskeleton seemingly covered my entire body, with a few exceptions around the joints so that my movements were unimpeded.

During this time that same whip-blade came into my field of view. As I concentrated on it, it began moving further into my field of view. The blade portion was large. It looked much larger than the largest kitchen knife I had ever seen. A foot long, maybe. As I had noted earlier, it was connected to a spine-like structure. I tentatively reached out to touch it and found that it was stiff. I thought about flexing it and the spine curled. Like the rest of me, it seemed to be coated by a sturdy exoskeleton with a series of exposed joints. I ran my hand along the structure and found that it went straight to my tail bone. I guess I had a tail, now. Also, I noted, the exoskeleton I had must have had a good sense of touch, because I could feel the various ridges and contours of my new 'skin' very well.

Continuing my investigation I found that my face was covered in a helmet-like structure. What I found weirdest was that I couldn't feel any eyes. I could _see_ my hands as they moved directly over where my eyes should have been, but I only felt smooth exoskeleton. Continuing my search I found that my legs were, as expected, covered in the same exoskeleton. I also had claws tipping my toes. There were some other things I noted that were very, very strange.

My legs were much longer than they should have been. I would have to try and measure my height at some point. I also noted that I had a set of ridges on my stomach, just below where I thought my ribcage ended. I also noted that I had two slight lumps hinting at breasts, but there was nothing visible. Also seemingly absent were my…bits. My thoughts were interrupted by an explosion and I could _feel_ it. It was a big one and it couldn't have been far away. I got up and started moving quickly again, trying to find my way.

I couldn't help but feel a growing sense of dread. Not only was I a naked ten-year old girl wandering around one of the seedier parts of the city (and I found myself thankful for the relatively warm weather), but the atmosphere around me seemed increasingly bleak. Every few minutes there was another explosion. I could hear various sirens going off in the background. Police, EMTs, fire trucks. They were all being deployed. On top of all of this I had been turned into some kind of bug-monster. I don't know how long I was walking. It felt like a long time, though my fear likely made it seem longer than it was, but eventually I crested a hill and was able to see loading dock lights straight ahead. I had found the Docks and now I knew where I was. But, rather than remedy my unease, it caused my trepidation to grow.

I had a relatively open field of view and could see a large portion of the city. There were fires everywhere. I could still hear explosions going off on occasion and I realized why. Someone was bombing my home. Fear gripped my heart and I started sprinting toward home. Someone was attacking Brockton Bay and I had no idea if it had reached my home. My parents.

Lamp posts and buildings blurred past me as I ran. Occasionally, I stopped to read a street sign or check for a landmark to make sure I was still on the right track. I began panting and my lungs and legs began to burn as they were starved for oxygen. Eventually, I had to stop at a street corner and catch my breath. Idly I noted that I had covered a lot of ground by now. I was half-way to my house. Whatever had happened to me it had made me _fast_.

It was while I was catching my breath that I ran into trouble. Or, more accurately, trouble ran into _me_. I heard several people run out of a nearby alley. I turned to see a group of ABB, all of them more disciplined. As soon as they caught sight of me, though, I could see fear cross their faces. The probable recruits quickly started backing away and looked about ready to run. The apparent leader of the group started shouting something at them. I had no idea what because I didn't even know what language it was, but it seemed to get them to stand their ground and take aim at me.

As soon as I saw the guns rise I began running again and I sprinted around the corner to keep some cover between me and them. I had just gotten the building between us when I heard the first gunshots. I kept running until I found an alley to duck into myself. I had no idea if they would actually pursue me, but I thought it was best not to stick around to find out. As I ran through the trash-filled alley, I soon ran into a chain link fence.

There was no way that I was going to go back the way I had come in case the ABB members _were_ chasing me, so I leaped and grabbed onto the fence, intending to climb my way over. Much to my surprise, I found that my jump almost let me clear the nearly seven-foot fence in one go. In the back of my mind I had also noted that I was almost as tall as the fence. With very little effort I was over the fence and on the other side, sprinting back toward the street. I continued sprinting home. I had to find Mom. I had to find Dad. I had to call Emma.

I encountered several more squads of the ABB on my way home all on edge and all armed. I was forced to make a detour every time I ran into one if I didn't want a bunch of holes in me. Every detour meant I had to take a moment to regain my bearings. The delays were only making me grow antsier and more worried. The explosions continued as well, each one serving to punctuate my growing anxiety.

At one point I had a particularly close call. It was yet another group that was composed of seemingly new recruits, but all of them were spattered with blood. They had already been involved in something brutal. I ducked around another corner, but one of them was a very quick shot or very lucky, and the bullet caught me in my arm.

When I reached another alley to hide in as I hissed an inhuman hiss due to pain. As I inspected the wound I realized that my blood had become a dark green. As it dripped to the ground I could hear a faint sizzling. Looking down I saw the blood burning several holes being burned into the ground. However, even though I had been hit almost directly in the middle of my arm the wound didn't seem very deep and I couldn't see a bullet.

There wasn't much that I could do about that right now, though, so I tried to put the pain out of my mind and focus on figuring out how to avoid the gang-bangers. After looking around for a moment I saw a fire escape and I had an idea. The ladder had been retracted, but that wouldn't be a problem. I leapt and grabbed onto the fire escape and quickly clambered up. I didn't bother stopping at each landing and simply used my newfound height and athleticism to rapidly ascend the side of the apartment complex. When I heard another explosion I took another look around and once again saw the devastation left by the bombs.

Most of them left behind flaming ruins, but there were several that had left…odd traces. There were areas covered in ice. Others were physically warped into impossible shapes. Some looked like they had simply collapsed in on themselves. I felt my heart plummet into my stomach as I surveyed the damage to the city. I stepped a few feet away from the edge and then I got myself a running start and leapt across to the next rooftop. I soared across the narrow alley and, when I landed, I stumbled into a roll. I got up and continued running.

The next building was too tall to jump to quite reach the roof, but there was another fire escape I could latch onto. As I reached the ledge I took another mighty leap and soared across another alley. I impacted the fire escape with a loud clang, but I quickly got a hold of it and climbed the short distance to the roof. Then I encountered yet another problem and came to a stop. The ledge led straight to a street. I didn't want to have to climb back up from the ground floor, but I doubted I could make that jump even with my enhanced body. I needed a way to make it shorter.

When a street lamp caught my eye I had an idea. I continued my sprint and leapt and landed on top of the lamp. It swayed a bit from my weight, but it held. As it tilted forward I leapt again and latched onto the lamp across the street. I scrambled to the top of that lamp and leapt to the next building. Now I had an entire city block where I could just building jump.

Technically this new method of travel was slower than if I had just been running along the ground, but it _did_ keep me out of the sight of the apparent swarm of ABB members in the city right now, which made it a better (and safer) route over all.

Things were (relatively) uneventful after that, though the explosions hadn't become any less frequent. As I passed through Empire Eighty-Eight I also began hearing gunshots. The ABB were engaged in a massive series of firefights with the Empire. Had Lung just grown tired of the status-quo and decided to simply take over?

I decided to ignore the gang activity for now. I was getting close to home and I was growing impatient as my fear and anxiousness grew. I knew I wouldn't be in Empire territory for long since I was just cutting through the edge of it. After a few minutes I was leaving the gunfights behind and continued on. At this rate I couldn't be more than ten minutes from home. Rooftop after rooftop and block after block I ran, jumped, and climbed. Before long I finally found the street my house was on.

I leapt onto the next lamppost and slid down. When I set foot on the ground I began sprinting north toward home. Barely two minutes later, due to apparently a greatly enhanced run speed, I was home. The lights were off. There was no evidence of any activity, but there were no cars in the driveway, something I found worrying.

When I tried the door I found it was locked. I wasn't really surprised, but I still let out an almost reptilian hiss in annoyance. I began feeling around underneath the stone lining the walkway leading up to the door and I quickly found the spare key. I unlocked the front door and immediately turned on the light. "MOM!? DAD!?" I called out in my now raspy, hissing voice. "Where are you!?"

Receiving no reply I began a systematic search of the first floor, calling to my parents the entire time. I checked the dining room, only to find all of the lights were off. Not here. I could tell that the kitchen light was off as well. They weren't on the first floor.

I ran up the stairs and immediately ran to my parents' bedroom and turned on the light. There was no one there. There was no sign that either of them had been there since they got up. Before I left I took a moment to grab one of Mom's dresses from her closet. I knew that my clothes wouldn't fit me at this point, so I didn't bother checking. I just wanted to have something covering me. What I immediately found strange was that I only found Mom's clothes in their closet. I hastily threw on the first dress I laid my hand on. Despite my mother being rather tall for a woman, her dress was short on me, with the hem stopping just below my knees. In panic (and just to be sure), I checked the rest of the upstairs. Every room was empty, though when I got to my room, things became stranger.

Most of my stuff was gone. The bed frame was still there and a few blankets, but all of my posters of the Protectorate and my stuffed animals – few though they were – were also missing. There was a new, smaller desk in the same corner that mine used to occupy. I filed that away in the back of my mind, though. I had to. I already had too much going on in my mind, I didn't need to add another. Whatever it meant, it was obvious that my parents weren't on the second floor. That only left the basement.

I rushed back downstairs and into the basement. I turned the light on and began searching. Our basement wasn't especially large. Really, it was more of a storage space than anything else, which meant that it didn't take long for me to see that there was no sign of my parents. But, what I did see just made this whole situation stranger.

In one corner was a pile of boxes. However, a few of them were open and I could see Dad's stuff sticking out of it. I walked over and began going through the boxes. Each and every one of them was full of Dad's things. And they weren't just minor knick-knacks that he may have cleared off a shelf to make more room. Mostly, they were full of his clothes, though there didn't seem to be anything wrong with any of them.

What was most concerning, though, was a poster of Scion's Witnesses, Dad's favorite band. More importantly, it had been signed by the band. Mom had gotten it for him for his birthday last year. It was only a few months before my last memory of waiting for Emma in the park. The very first thing he had done was to have it framed and he hung it up in the front room. In my panic I had missed it earlier, but it was staring me in the face right now. As I went through the other boxes, though, I began to find some of my missing stuff, such as my clothes and the few stuffed animals I had.

I took a deep breath and tried to think rationally. My parents had taught me that panicking didn't solve anything. Acting out of panic would, if anything, just make things worse every time. I was missing a lot of information. My parents should be able to fill in a lot of it; I just had to get into contact with them. As I thought about things I began to imagine that they could both just be working late, not an unheard of prospect.

Having seen all of Dad's stuff in the basement I felt more panic over his whereabouts, so I decided I would try calling the Union building first. I faintly heard a door close upstairs and I started heading upstairs to check it out. As I began running up the stairs I heard several loud thumps moving toward the basement stairs. I hadn't been subtle or stealthy about my ascent so I wasn't surprised that the intruder was already watching the stairs by the time I came into view. What _did_ surprise me though was what I saw.

As I got near the top of the stairs I saw a teenage girl jump into view. She was wearing a black helmet with a blue visor. She had auburn hair flowing out from underneath. Her upper arms and chest were protected by blue armor plates with black fabric beneath it. She similarly had blue armor plates covering a black fabric over her legs. To finish the outfit, she had black boots as well as a blue utility belt. She certainly dressed like a cape and, if she was in her teens, then there was a good chance that she was a Ward. I really didn't want to tangle with a parahuman, so I stopped just before I reached the top.

"What are you doing in my house?" I asked in that strange hissing voice I now had. Even if she was a Ward, what was she doing here? I hadn't made any kind of call to 911 and there shouldn't have been anyone else in the house to do so.

"I should be the one asking you what you're doing here," the unknown girl replied. There was something in her voice that seemed familiar, but I couldn't quite figure out what.

"I live here. But you still haven't answered me. What are you doing in my home!?" I demanded. My fear and panic were turning into anger and it was creeping into my voice. My city was being attacked, I just wanted to find my parents, and now a Ward was questioning me about being in own home. This was BS!

The cape must have taken that for a threat because she took a step back and put a hand to her helmet near where her ear would be. "Console I think I'm going to need backup. I have an unknown Case 53 at 577 East Baker Street. She appears agitated and possibly confused."

"I'm NOT confused!" I insisted. My tail lashed against the stairs almost by itself as though it was adding more emphasis to my statement. "My name is Taylor Hebert and this is where I live!"

The Ward's posture stiffened. "If you're who you claim to be," she said with an edge in her voice, "Then if you just wait some people will be here to escort you to the PRT Headquarters where we can verify-"

"No!" I shouted. My tail whipped against the basement drywall and caved in a long chunk of the wall. "I just got out of a tank and then explosions were going off everywhere and I just want to see my mom and dad!" I yelled with a sob in my voice. "And you still haven't told me why you're here!"

The Ward remained silent for a moment. I couldn't tell what she might be thinking since her entire face was covered by a reflective visor. Finally she spoke. "I'm making sure that this area is evacuated. As you can tell, it's not safe-"

She was interrupted when someone else ran through the open door. The Ward turned to see who it was. "Oh fuck," she swore.

"Mom!" I shouted with joy and relief, though my voice was tainted by an undertone of an ear-piercing shriek. I moved to push past the Ward in my house when she jumped and used the molding of the door as leverage to pin me against the wall. When my mother saw me move toward her I could hear her gasp in fear.

"Annette, go get Arianna!" she shouted at my mother. I saw Mom run up the stairs to the second floor.

I shoved the Ward aside and ran to the first floor. As I tried to make my way to the second-floor stairs, the Ward shoved me toward the door. She was out of my line of sight, so I was unprepared and went tumbling to the ground.

As I picked myself up from the ground the Ward pointed at me and spoke. "Stay put! You're going to wait there, quietly, until help arrives."

Once again, there was that familiar something in her voice again. I just quietly hissed at her and tried to go around her again. She jumped backward a few times, with each jump being more energetic, and then she jumped off of the stair railing and launched herself at me like a missile. Once again I was knocked toward the door.

I picked myself up once more. There was no way this person, seemingly a Ward, was here officially. She knew my mother and apparently someone else in this house. "What are you doing here? And don't tell me it has anything to do with your job, this is personal."

"I told you, I'm here to make sure that the people in this house remain safe," she replied. She was constantly bouncing from one foot to the other, never stopping her motion.

"How do you know my mom!?" I demanded as I took a step closer.

I saw her cock her hips and put her hand on her left hip and finally I realized who this was. "About time you showed up, Clockblocker." I had just managed to open my mouth when everything went black.


	3. Metamorphosis 1-3

Reality came back to me, bringing with it the sound of arguing. Before I had time to actually make out what the arguing was about, everything went black again. The next time I became aware again I found my arms and legs bound in containment foam. I immediately started falling but I was caught by a pair of PRT troopers. My mother was nowhere in sight. The only people I could see were the two troopers and Emma.

The troopers carried me out to a black PRT van and Emma ran ahead to open the doors for them. They set me down on the floor and Emma climbed in. When the van started, I felt vibration coming through the metallic floor.

"Emma!" I shouted to get her attention. Again, it had an inhuman shriek underlying it. "Why am I in here!" I began struggling and discovered that my tail was also trapped in the foam.

She turned to look at me, though I couldn't see her face because of her helmet. I couldn't help but find it uncomfortable to look at. It gave me some perspective on what it must be like talking to me. "Please, call me Ricochet."

"Emma, I know it's you, we were like sisters. Please, just tell me why you won't let me see my mom," I pleaded.

She just stared at me for a moment before speaking calmly. "Look, since I'm in costume it's very important that you refer to me by my alias, Ricochet, even if you think you know my name. It's for my own safety. So, I'll make you a deal. Start calling me by alias and I'll answer your questions as best as I can, alright?"

I just nodded. As much as I just wanted her to drop the act I wasn't really in any position to argue that. If I wanted any information I'd have to play along, so I just nodded.

"Alright," Ricochet said as she leaned forward a bit. "I want you to put yourself in my shoes for a moment. I go to check on a civilian as a favor to a friend and I find someone claiming to be a girl that went missing five years ago." I went rigid when I heard her say that. I had been gone for five years? The thought was dizzying. Ricochet continued on. "But she looks nothing like the photos in the missing persons report. But I can't just leave her alone with the woman she claims is her mother. What if she's been conditioned by some power to believe that she's Taylor Hebert?"

"So, what, I can never see my mom because I 'might not be me?'" I asked sarcastically.

The Ward shook her head. "No," she said calmly, "That's not it at all. Have you ever heard of master/stranger protocols?" I shook my head. "They're a set of protocols designed to rule out imposters and people being manipulated by master-powers. They're supposed to be pretty thorough."

I did not like the sound of that. Not one bit. I began struggling, trying to break free from the containment foam. I knew it wasn't going to happen, but I refused to just let them run tests on me. "So you just want to poke and prod me, is that it?"

Ricochet held her hands up in a calming gesture. "Woah, woah, woah! Calm down! It's just some tests."

"Like what?" I snapped at her.

"Like an MRI scan for one," she explained. "And they'll ask some questions. You know, to see what's lighting up in your brain. Make sure it's, you know, your thoughts. Actually, I think most of it's just observation with some tinker tech, though I don't know the specifics." Then she took on a thoughtful look. "Actually, a DNA test could clear this up pretty quickly, especially with some tinker-tech we have. And if it'll make you feel a bit better I'll stop by once this situation with the ABB is over."

I stopped struggling and settled for giving her a skeptical look before realizing that she couldn't see it. "You don't believe me so why should I expect you to be nice?"

Ricochet just leaned back and sighed. "Look, I really do want to believe you. I really want you to be this girl who has been missing for five years." That again. Five years. How did I not remember any of it? "But that also makes it even more important to follow the rules on this, otherwise I could end up letting my wants color my decisions. Besides, I wasn't lying when I said it wasn't safe there. You'll be safer spending a day at Protectorate HQ."

I laid my head down and sighed. It sounded like a serpentine hiss more than any human sound. At the very least she seemed sincere. I wasn't convinced that this was going to go well, but Ricochet wasn't going to change her mind and there wasn't really anything I could do. Containment foam was practically indestructible and could hold parahumans much, much stronger than I was.

After that an uncomfortable silence fell upon the van. I laid my head on the floor and just watched the van doors. However, Ricochet apparently became uncomfortable with the silence as well as she attempted to break it. "So, Taylor, how did you get in that house? I didn't see any signs of forced entry."

I just snorted and gave her an incredulous look. "So you're calling me Taylor, now? I thought you 'couldn't be sure I was me?'" I really wished I had my hands free if only so I could put in the appropriate air quotes.

Ricochet just shrugged. "Well, I don't know what else to call you and I doubt that you'd like to be called 'you' or 'girl' or something. So, how'd you get in?"

"I used the spare key, like anyone who's been locked out of their own house would."

Ricochet nodded. "So, if you've been missing for five years, then where have you been? How'd you get like this?" As she asked the question she gestured to my entire body.

"I don't know."

Ricochet leaned in. "Do you know who abducted you?"

I shook my head. "No. I just remember waiting in the park for-" I had almost said 'you,' but Emma was adamant about me calling her 'Ricochet.' I'd have to ask about that name when I got a chance. In the mean time I had a story to continue. "I was waiting in the park for a friend and her dad to pick me up. They were running a bit late, but I wasn't worried. Then I remember someone putting a weird-smelling cloth over my face and everything went dark. Then I woke up in a tank."

Ricochet cocked her head. "A tank?"

I nodded. Then I began to tell her about what happened after I woke up and how I escaped. She leaned in to listen. I continued the story and I told her that it was a Medhall warehouse I had escaped from. I even told her about the things I had seen in the darkness. She was a Ward, part of the Protectorate. This was something they should know about. When I told her about being shot she quickly moved to look at my arm. Fortunately, the acid blood had coagulated by now and left little trace otherwise things could have gotten messy.

After she was done, Ricochet leaned back. "Well, the wound looks worse than it probably is. I'm not sure what that…exoskeleton of yours is made of, but it looks like the bullet just cracked it. I couldn't see any sign of an actual bullet hole. Still, it sounds like you've had a pretty hard time tonight."

"Yeah," I said quietly. "So I answered your questions but I have one of my own, Ricochet." She nodded at me. "What's going on in Brockton Bay? What's with the explosions? And why are the ABB everywhere?"

"That's fair, I guess. Based on the reports they have the same cause, an ABB lieutenant named Bakuda. You wouldn't have heard about it, but recently Lung was taken into PRT custody." My head reeled back in surprise. Who had been able to overcome _Lung_ of all people? "Yeah, that's been a big story for the last week. Anyway, she's been on a bombing spree for hours and she seems to have been recruiting HARD and has been using that extra gang-power to cause more havoc on top of the explosions. The police, the PRT, the Protectorate, and even the Wards have all had their hands full since then."

"It sounds pretty bad," I told her.

Ricochet shook her head. "It's not a great situation, no."

"Well," I began uneasily, "At least my mom is alright. Since you claimed to be doing a friend a favor, you wouldn't happen to know what happened to my dad? Or who the other kid was?"

Ricochet's posture became stiff and she seemed to grow uncomfortable. "I...can't tell you about that."

"Can't or won't?" I asked.

Ricochet dropped her head before she spoke. "I can't." Her voice had more conviction in it this time.

I just huffed in annoyance. Here I was in a PRT van, trapped in containment foam, and my best friend was refusing to acknowledge that she knew me. I couldn't think of how this could get much worse. I did my best to ignore her for the rest of the ride to the PRT headquarters.

It wasn't much longer before the van stopped and the doors were opened. A pair of PRT troopers picked me up and took me into the building, followed by Ricochet. As soon as I was brought into the building it was chaos. PRT agents were running everywhere. Some of them were carrying papers while others were escorting gang-members, though I noticed I was the only person in containment foam.

We stopped at the front desk and I was set on the ground while, though much more carefully than I had expected. They stopped at a desk and set me on the ground, though much more carefully than I had expected. One of them began filling out some paper on a clipboard. Before long they picked me back up and I was taken through a series of hallways all painted eggshell-white.

I was eventually taken to a cell and set on the ground. One of the PRT agents waited by the door with Ricochet while another one approached with a spray can of some kind. He sprayed some chemical over the foam and it quickly began dissolving. Before I was free of the foam he left the room and stood next to the other agent.

Ricochet looked at me. In a calm, soft voice she said, "I just want you to know that you're not in trouble. No matter what happens you'll be out of here before long, I promise. We should have time to do the DNA test first thing tomorrow and then we can clear this whole thing up, though the PRT'll probably still want to perform the master/stranger protocols. Oh, and someone should be by soon with food. I can't say PRT food is the best, but it's edible." She then pointed to a door off to the side. "There's a restroom in that room right there. I'll stop by as soon as I can, but for now I need to get back out there." She then closed the door and I was left to myself.

I looked around. It was actually pretty sparsely decorated. There was a bed against the wall directly opposite the door with plain white sheets and a plain white blanket. Next to the door there was a desk with a chair, placed so that it would be the first thing you would see when you opened the door. Now that the containment foam had dissolved I was able to walk over and look at the desk. Fortunately the back of the chair wasn't solid. It had two struts running from the seat to a small panel for back support with plenty of room between them for my tail. Right now, I didn't want to try to find a comfortable position with my new appendage.

As I inspected the desk I found that the top lifted and I found some paper and a basic ballpoint pen in there. I closed the desk when I heard the door open. There was a PRT agent carrying a round, black plastic container with some napkins on top. She held the container out to me and spoke. "I've brought you something to eat."

"Thanks," I said quietly. I noticed that she was holding it at arm's length and was only half-way in the door with another agent standing behind her, just outside. I took the container and she quickly left and closed the door.

I set the container on the desk and opened it. I didn't have any utensils, but it looked like I wouldn't need any. My meal consisted of a hamburger patty, some baby carrots, and a few apple slices. Call it stress or depression or whatever you wanted, but I didn't feel like eating. I just wanted to curl up and sleep.

I grabbed the blanket off of the bed and began crawling under the bed. I had no idea why, but it just looked so much more comfortable under there than on the bed, in the open. I curled up into the fetal position and wrapped the blanket around myself. As soon as I did I felt a sudden exhaustion come over me from the stress of the day. I let out a sobbing sigh and I quickly fell asleep.


End file.
